India Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh on 1 June 2026 publicly confirmed at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore that India has signed a deal worth approximately USD 629 million to supply BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles to Vietnam, with the contract reported to have been signed in the previous fiscal year but officially announced now. The deal covers the coastal-defence variant of BrahMos with a 290 kilometre range and includes training and logistical support for the Vietnam People Navy. BrahMos is manufactured by BrahMos Aerospace, a joint venture established in 1998 between India Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Russia NPO Mashinostroyeniya, named after the Brahmaputra and Moskva rivers. The missile is a long-range supersonic cruise missile that can be launched from land, sea, sub-sea and air platforms and operates on a fire-and-forget principle with high supersonic speeds throughout flight. Vietnam becomes the second Southeast Asian nation to acquire BrahMos after the Philippines which received its first shore-based anti-ship variant in April 2024 under a USD 375 million 2022 contract. The Defence Secretary also indicated that negotiations with Indonesia are in the final stages, marking BrahMos as a flagship of India defence-export push toward the USD 5 billion annual target by 2025-26 and USD 6 billion by 2028-29. The export consolidates India strategic alignment with ASEAN partners under the Act East policy and the Indo-Pacific framework while strengthening Vietnam ability to defend its maritime claims in the South China Sea against coercive activity, without any country being named.